THE CROW AND ITS RELATION TO MAN. 17 
and larvae are inveterate enemies of caterpillars, some species even 
climbing trees in search of their prey. The offensive odor and sup- 
posed "warning coloration, especially of C. scrutator, C. wfflcoxi, and 
C. calidum, appear to have no deterring effect upon the crow, the 
nestlings of which ate even greater numbers than the parent birds. 
The brilliantly colored C. scrutator was identified in 16 stomachs of 
adults, six being the largest number found in any one stomach. The 
fiery hunter (C. calidum) was eaten more frequently, being present in 
53 of the 1,340 stomachs. In one stomach, that of a bird collected in 
New York in June, were the remains of at least 15 of these beetles, 
forming half the bird's food. Another crow from New York had 
taken 10, and one from Manitoba, 5. Four other species of Calosoma 
were identified, but in none of the stomachs did they occur in large 
numbers. 
Beetles of the less common genera Carabus and Cychrus were found 
in correspondingly fewer stomachs. The large, broad ground beetle 
Pasimachus, so common in some of the prairie regions of the West, 
was a regular article of food of crows collected in Kansas. One of 
these taken in May had eaten 16, while another secured in Illinois in 
November had devoured no less than 80 of the larvae. Of the 1,340 
adult crows, 57 had fed on Pasimachus. Both the larger and smaller 
Scarites (S. substriatus and S. subterraueus) were found, though 
seldom more than one to a stomach. Of the smaller active ground 
beetles with predacious habits those of the genus Pterostichus ap- 
peared most frequently, but never in large numbers. Evarthrus ap- 
peared in numerous stomachs from Kansas. Various species of 
Harpalus also were well represented, especially the large H. caligi- 
nosus, and H. pennsylv aniens, one of the commonest of the genus. 
The extreme abundance of members of the genus Amara in some 
sections of the West would seem to indicate that they are more her- 
bivorous than is generally supposed. A crow collected at Aweme, 
Manitoba, in May had eaten no less than 176, along with several 
Harpalus; another taken in April made away with 131 Amara, 
6 Platynus, and fragments of a few other ground beetles; and a 
third had its stomach nearly half filled with the remains of 91 
Amara, 57 Harpalus, and 2 Calosoma calidum. Several other stom- 
achs collected in the Northwest contained upward of a score of these 
small beetles. Ground beetles of the genus Chlcenius, insects which 
frequent damp' situations, occurred in a number of the stomachs of 
Kansas crows. Agonoderus pallipes, which is at times destructive to 
seed corn, was present in only a few. 
In the destruction of predacious ground beetles, especially the 
larger ones, as Calosoma and Pasimachus, the crow is doing man 
indirect harm. Fortunately the quantity of such food is small, only 
14653°— 18— Bull. 621 2 
